By CATHERINE THORBECKE, ABC News(SEATTLE) — Amazon said Tuesday that independent sellers brought in more than $4.8 billion in worldwide sales from Black Friday through Cyber Monday, an increase of more than 60% from 2019.With sales from the past weekend, the e-commerce giant also said that 2020 already has become its largest holiday shopping season ever.The new data reflects a high demand for e-commerce and delivery options for consumers this year as the coronavirus pandemic rages on.Moreover, Amazon said nearly all of its independent businesses, which racked in the record $4.8 billion over the weekend, are small and medium sized.The company added that more than 71,000 small- and medium-sized businesses worldwide already have surpassed $100,000 in sales. In addition, American small- and medium-sized businesses have sold an average of 9,500 products per minute this holiday season to date.Some of the best sellers on the site over the weekend include Amazon’s Echo Dot device, Barack Obama’s memoir, A Promised Land, and the Revlon One-Step Hair Dryer and Volumizer Hot Air Brush, the company said.Jeff Wilke, CEO of Amazon’s worldwide consumer business, thanked customers, employees and selling partners “for making this our biggest holiday season to date, and for everything you’re doing to support our communities and each other now and throughout the year.”Despite a pandemic and looming economic downturn, Cyber Monday this year became the largest online spending day in history at $10.8 billion, according to data from Adobe Analytics.This is an increase of more than 15% compared with last year. Cyber Monday pushed the total holiday season spending to date to $106 billion, Adobe analysts said.Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
